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Talker's MagazineThe quirky talk radio trade mag. Check the Talk Radio Research Project- it's not very scientific, but places on the top 15 talkers list (scroll down to Talk Radio Audiences By Size)) are as hotly contested as Emmys (and mean just about as much).

The AdvocateNo, not THAT Advocate... it's the Northwest Progressive Institute's Official Blog.

Media MattersDocumentation of right-wing media in video, audio and text.

Orcinushome of David Neiwert, freelance investigative journalist and author who writes extensively about far-right hate groups

Hominid Views"People, politics, science, and whatnot"
Darryl is a statistician who fights imperialism with empiricism, gives good links and wry commentary.

Jesus' General An 11 on the Manly Scale of Absolute Gender, a 12 on the Heavenly Scale of the 10 Commandments and a 6 on the earthly scale of the Immaculately Groomed.

Irrational Public Radio "informs, challenges, soothes and/or berates, and does so with a pleasing vocal cadence and unmatched enunciation. When you listen to IPR, integrity washes over you like lava, with the pleasing familiarity of a medium-roast coffee and a sensible muffin."

The Moderate VoiceThe voice of reason in the age of Obama, and the politics of the far-middle.

News Hounds Dogged dogging of Fox News by a team who seems to watch every minute of the cable channel so you don't have to.

HistoryLinkFun to read and free encyclopedia of Washington State history. Founded by the late Walt Crowley, it's an indispensable tool and entertainment source for history wonks and surfers alike.

right-wing blogs we like

The Reagan WingHearin lies the real heart of Washington State Republicans. Doug Parris runs this red-meat social conservative group site which bars no holds when it comes to saying who they are and who they're not; what they believe and what they don't; who their friends are and where the rest of the Republicans can go. Well-written, and flaming.

June 17, 2012

Radio's Bryan Fischer tries pushing Romney right

In April, Mitt Romney hired Richard Grenell, an openly gay man, to serve as his campaign's national security spokesman. Within hours, Grenell was being attacked by a Christian radio talk show host named Bryan Fischer, whose Focal Point call-in show reaches more than 1 million listeners a day.

Nine days after Fischer began his on-air attack, Grenell resigned. He had been the only openly gay member of Romney's campaign staff.

The Christian right and Fischer saw Grenell's resignation as a "tremendous victory," says New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer.

"[Bryan Fischer] feels he and what he calls the 'pro-family' movement managed to hound Romney into pushing an openly gay member of his campaign out because of the fact that he was gay," says Mayer. "So they feel that they've really triumphed on this one."

Grenell said he resigned in part because of the focus on his personal life from both the "far right and the far left." And Romney said he was disappointed Grenell resigned.

Mayer's profile of Fischer, which appears in the current edition of The New Yorker, details how the Christian radio host from Tupelo, Miss., is pushing far-right and anti-gay policy decisions on the Romney campaign and the Republican Party.

"He wants to shape the policy of the Republican Party because he hopes to change America," says Mayer. "He's evangelizing to make America more in line with his biblical views. On his own, he probably defines such far out views that there's a tendency to dismiss him. But what makes Bryan Fischer worth paying some attention to is that he's part of a larger group — a bloc of voters, the evangelical white voters — who have become a very well-organized and very significant part of the Republican Party at this point."

An 'Alternative Universe'

Mayer first became aware of Fischer while in Mississippi covering the Rick Santorum presidential campaign. She tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that many of Santorum's supporters were "viciously anti-Obama ... not just politically opposed but really worked up about it." She wondered where they were getting their information.

"A number of them said that they loved this talk show host, Bryan Fischer," she says. "That was the first time I had heard of him. So I started tuning into him myself. ... And it was fascinating. And what you begin to realize is that out in the country, there is a completely alternative universe and a completely alternative media universe. And there are even alternative facts that they put out. It is so far to the right, even of Fox, that is just a completely different reality."

Mayer says that Fischer often has like-minded experts on his show who are looked at as outliers within the academic community. One of his favorite guests, Berkeley molecular and cell biology professor Peter Duesberg, has questioned whether HIV causes AIDS. (Fischer has also denied that AIDS is caused by a virus.)

"[Duesberg] is considered almost a pariah within the scientific community because of his views at this point," says Mayer. "But [he is] the person Fischer can turn to and he has an alternative set of facts. He's kind of the last person saying AIDS is caused by other things, by drug use from what they claim is the 'homosexual lifestyle.' "

Other experts come on Fischer's show to debate the theory of evolution.

"In that particular case, it's not a minority view among Republican voters in Mississippi," says Mayer. "Sixty-six percent of the Republican voters in Mississippi don't believe in Darwin's theory of evolution. They believe that the human race was created as is told in Genesis. So Fischer also subscribes to that view and promulgates it and finds experts who agree with that and puts them on the air."

A "Winnable War"

"That's definitely his motto, and his war is to implement biblical law as American law," says Mayer. "He wants the Bible to shape American politics, American law, American government, American values, American culture. That's the fight that he's fighting."

The show is carried and distributed by the American Family Association's radio network, which extends to 200 stations across 35 states. It was founded by Donald Wildmon in 1977 and received national attention in the 1980s and 1990s for boycotting advertisers and stores that sold or supported things the AFA deemed "racy." That included successfully pushing 7-Eleven stores to stop selling Playboy and Penthouse. The AFA later attacked Disney and Home Depot for having employment policies that were gay friendly.

In recent years, Mayer says, the AFA has broadened its reach beyond television shows and advertising campaigns.

"They've really broadened so now they have their own news operation and a production studio where they make movies that are Christian-themed movies for popular consumption," she says.

The AFA is a nonprofit organization, which means it must remain strictly nonpartisan because of its nonprofit status. But Fischer's show is very political, says Mayer.

"He is a very outspoken political voice every single day," she says. "And the way he defines the line legally is that if he doesn't come out and directly endorse a candidate in the 2012 presidential case, then as far as he's concerned he's not breaking the law. So he basically goes out and trashes Obama every day, and he's somewhat critical of Romney — he really liked Santorum, he really liked Rick Perry — but he is a commentator on politics every single day, with very strong opinions. But he stops one inch short of making an actual endorsement."

Comments

Mississippi, the poorest state in the Union. That's where we are all headed. Poverty breeds ignorance and the blind following of cult leaders. If anyone needs a good reason for income redistribution and strong education, Mississippi is it.

I wonder at what point it will be politically okay to start comparing the rightwing propaganda machine to pre-war Germany?

I wonder to what degree chickens have come home to roost? There was a time when all African-Americans had was their church and belief in a better place after this life. Instead of southern blacks getting smarter and wealthier, southern whites have gotten dumber and poorer. Cling to those Bibles folks. That's the extent of your riches in this life and the next.

And I thought there was supposed to be a separation between church and state...and that's what made us different. So much for exceptionalism.

It's been months since I gave up on this blog, but thought I'd check in. I see nothing has changed. As evidenced by this most recent post about someone most people have never even heard of, the focus is still on the fringe of the extreme right, where manufactured outrage hopes to distract from the important issues that are creating a very interesting battle for the Whitehouse. Move along, folks, nothing to see here. :)

I always wonder why people go to all the trouble to post that they don't like this blog. Are we supposed to care? Why not just close the screen? I assume we won't be seeing you again, or will you come back to repeatedly complain?

My sense is that they still care enough to offer a suggestion. In related news to this post;

"At Party, Bloomberg Tips Hand on Endorsement
By MICHAEL BARBARO

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York has remained coy about whether he plans to endorse a presidential candidate this year, even as Mitt Romney and President Obama aggressively court the billionaire media mogul.

The most that the mayor and his aides have said is that Mr. Bloomberg, who did not endorse in 2008, is carefully weighing his options this time around.

But during casual conversations at charity event a few days ago, Mr. Bloomberg was far chattier — and candid — about the subject, according to three people who overheard him.

Mr. Bloomberg said that he believed Mr. Romney would probably be better at running the country than Mr. Obama, according to two guests.

But Mr. Bloomberg said he could not support Mr. Romney because he disagreed with him on so many social issues, these two people said. The mayor mentioned two such issues: abortion rights and gun control.

As a result, Mr. Bloomberg said, he intended to remain neutral, said one guest.

The mayor’s office declined to comment on the conversation.

Mr. Bloomberg spoke about the election last Monday during the annual fund-raiser for the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, a nonprofit with close ties to City Hall. The charity dinner was held on the roof of 200 Fifth Avenue, home of Eataly, the gourmet Italian market. (Among the guests were Mario Batali, the chef and Eataly partner, and Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue.)

A guest at the dinner had asked the mayor for his feelings about the two candidates, prompting a lengthy reply, which was overheard by other guests. Two of those guests spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they feared upsetting the mayor by discussing a private discussion; a third was a reporter for The New York Times.

Guests described the mayor as relaxed and talkative, as he often can be at the evening events he attends several times a week.

Both Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama are vying for the political support of Mr. Bloomberg, whose name is all but synonymous with corporate-style management, Wall Street clout and nonpartisan politics."

Bloomberg apparently tipped his hand, which is a bit amazing for on of the leading proponents of the nanny state.

RQ, the differnce between our wacky doodles on the left and yours on the right is that our wackadoodles don't set party policy. they would like to but they are small and not powerful. They march through the streets and hold rallies but Congress doesn't act on any of it.
Your fundigelicals and tea party folks have your party by the short hairs and even elected a few of them. A nominee won't past muster if they are moderate like the republicans in my family. Romney is a moderate tying to wear the cloak of a tea partied and it isn't working out well.
As another example, in Montana at a republican gathering there was a large outhouse front and center. On the side was written "For a good time call Michelle," crossed out and replaced with "Hillary" crossed out and replaced with "Pelosi". This is the face of your party even though you and I know it is the fringe.

Your message seems a bit muddled, Walt. It is commonly understood (even by some who frequent this blog) that Pelosi is part of the radical left wing loons who have seized control of the Democrat Party and seem to have a death wish. True, that Romney is more of a moderate and the Republicans have turned more right - to counter the left turn of the Democrats, which leaves a big gap in the middle. The Democrats do not wish to compromise with anyone, except illegal aliens in hopes for more Democrat votes - who the Republicans also compromise with.

The Tea Party does have some radical ideas, which need to be blended in with reality - austerity does not work well if the economy is fragile. However, those in the Tea Party have backbone, which Republicans as a rule don't have. It is a delicate balance - Tea Party needs a dose of reality and Repubs need backbone. That battle will continue to wage on into the next few years.

The Occupiers try to pretend to be marchers and protesters like Tea Party, but what they stand for and their behavior is vastly different and reeks of mental illness and insanity.

The taxing the rich mantra doesn't cut it because it will never address the cutting the deficit in the short term and definitely won't do it in the long term. They use the same old campaign rhetoric in Europe and to no avail - the EU is crumbling away.

A third of the tea party candidates were elected. I wonder how that compares with progressives? Is that third a fringe? Is it a growing fringe? If they are, they are a powerful fringe. Is McConnell fringe? Is Cantor? Is Kyl?

Walt described the situation - sort of like defining the problem - but he didn't attend to the ramifications of this unequal power the tea party brings to governing. So, what's the point? How is that thinking it through?

My response is to ask what does all that means. What's next? For both the Republicans who aren't the fringe and the left.

It is so easy to trash the left when really the left is where the middle used to be. This fusing of the left and right as both fringe elements doesn't make sense to me. I'm a progressive and I stand with Eisenhower and Evans.

Well that's fine with me that you feel that way KS. May I even request that you and your fellow conservatives continue to feel that way because as long as you do, the fringies will run things and that's good for my side.

TS I was merely responding to RQs statement that a fringe rightwinger has no bearing on the real news. That was hopeful at best on her part.

It is so easy to trash the left when really the left is where the middle used to be. This fusing of the left and right as both fringe elements doesn't make sense to me. I'm a progressive and I stand with Eisenhower and Evans.

Posted by: T-S | June 18, 2012 at 09:17 PM
LMAO - you are delusional, T-S. The left is where the old Soviets used to be. Conservatives have moved to the right - but not as far left as the progressives-neo-coms are and Romney is closer to the center than Reagan was. The left has the edge on emotion and as a result is often way deficient on reason and it shows in the scope of your comments, T-S.

How do you know what kind of a role the tea party will play in the upcoming election, if no one else outside of them even knows ?

Name a fringe right-winger Walt and we can check out your theory. RQ is correct. All that you on the left are doing is trying to distract from the real issues because you know that a majority of the people would not like Owebama's agenda if it were exposed.

Right now, its one against three, maybe soon to be four or five. I'll take up where this leaves off tomorrow.

This is the face of your party even though you and I know it is the fringe.

And then you call "hopeful" her observation that "fringe rightwingers have no bearing on the news."

Seems we agree they do have a bearing on the news. So, is the tea party really a fringe? That's the part I'm questioning. I think they have moved the center right. The further right the center goes, the closer the "fringe" gets to center. Then I guess we'll have a new fringe - what will we call them? You call progressive "the fringe" - so now Eisenhower, Evans and me are "the fringe." I'm not sure how logical that is. As for RQ, her sneering doesn't tell me much about her politics.

so now Eisenhower, Evans and me are "the fringe." I'm not sure how logical that is. As for RQ, her sneering doesn't tell me much about her politics.

Posted by: T-S | June 18, 2012 at 10:38 PM

Time to debunk your propaganda, T-S once again.
Eisenhower and Evans are and will remain center right, while they had some progressive in them. You, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer and the Dems in the leadership are well to the left of Evans and Eisenhower - they are predominantly progressive, in fact they are hardly discernible from the Soviet style pols. It can be seen by their policies and their tactics. That is what predominantly progressive politicians are today.

"Yes, my anxiety for our democracy may be showing. Sorry."

Your anxiety is not for democracy - it is for redistributionism and bloated government that are led by the predominantly progressives which at best is perverted Democracy. The mainstream news media favors them too and have been bought and are owned by them. Fortunately, there is alternate media that exposes the bulls**t that is today's news reporting on ABC,CBS, NBC, CNN and MSLSD and AP.

No I consider "progressives" to be true to Democratic principals, just as I believe there are traditional Republicans. The parties shown in the media have merged into some weird ball of snakes. The four members of the "new" Black Panthers or the guy on the corner by the gas station near my house demanding that people become socialists are fringy left IMO. Those on the right who care only for winning back power no matter how it hurts the country--by publically announcing they will never say yes to anything Obama wants--are the fringy right. Oh yeah, and the people who put up that outhouse.

"Things are much worse for people without college degrees, though. The real entry-level hourly wage for men who recently graduated from high school fell to $11.68 last year, from $15.64 in 1979, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. And the percentage of those jobs that offer health insurance has plummeted to 22.8 percent, from 63.3 percent in 1979."

Though inflation has stayed relatively low in recent years, it has remained high for some of the most important things: college, health care and even, recently, food. The price of food in the home rose by 4.8 percent last year, one of the biggest jumps in the last two decades."

Reagan and Bush have sure screwed up this country. Where are the jobs GOP congress?

I've been thinking about your post. Traditional Republicans? Like Olympia Snow who retires rather than take on her party. That's what she said. Her party has left her. I don't respect that. She and other Republicans absolutely can buck their own party but they won't. We don't have many on the left but we do have some: Dennis Kucinich comes to mind. And those Dinos like Ben Nelson. No, we don't heard sheet - read Ari Berman's Herding Donkeys. Democrats get tired but they aren't afraid to buck the leadership in their own party.

How many women on the right can you name who are standing up for women's rights? Even one? I watched Cathy McMorris from Eastern WA on Chris Mathews some time ago. When he tried to drive home the message of including all women by asking the question how can you not include all women in the legislation, her response was that the legislation as it stood without broadening it "helps women like me." She honestly said that and Chris, in one of his few dull moments didn't pick up on it. "Women like me." That's RQ. Republicans protect themselves. In my mind, they're all tea party and the tea party has simply given them permission to be themselves. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III wants to cut food stamps. Paul Ryan who portrays himself as a "good catholic" put spending cuts over safety nets. You should have watched his oh-so-genuinely-caring act before Georgetown students. As it stands now, the whole Republican Party is fringe. And with the help of media (in which are seen or heard very few Democrats and even fewer progressives), an awful lot of people are being brainwashed into a new version of serfdom.

We can't have an energy policy in this country thanks to the right. We don't have a food policy or agricultural or health policy thanks to the right. We don't have a water policy thanks to the right. We don't have an industrial policy thanks to the right. You can't have policies that lead your country into the future if you don't have government leadership. So, we will have corporate leadership instead. That's what the right - RQ and all the rest of them - want. Screw the rest of us.

Honestly, all we seem to have is a weapons policy: more war and more armaments. That's what makes the plutocrats (and Dick Cheney) who now run our country rich. I read in Huffington Post today that even George Soros is giving up. He's not funding the democrats this year. He said a long time ago that this rightwing-proclaimed "socialist" wasn't going to get the job done on the left. And he was right.

Like a lot of good germans who did nothing because in their hearts there was some attraction to the anti-Jewish appeal, Americans will follow the music of the right-wing pied piper who is composing to their baser natures. Their self interests. Their dislike of those who are different.

Can anyone say that our current predicament, selfishness, hatefulness towards people not like us, targeting of sovereign countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and now Iran, and outright greed is all that different from pre-war germany?

I see the bigger picture.

Crazy signs on outhouses, dummies who carry guns at tea party marches, and street people who smoke pot at occupy sit-ins are the real fringes.

Rightwing money funded the tea party movement because they thought it enhanced their agenda and it has. The left has no money funding the occupy movement. Perhaps if they did, it could become a real movement just like the tea party did. We're a herd of donkeys and we aren't all searching for that pot of gold unlike the right which is all about money.

What station do you listen to DemoNow ! ? I listen to KTTH once in a while but not as much as other stations. I read more Internet sites also. Can you disprove my assertion with something besides MSNBC or other leftwing propaganda ?

T-S Quit trying to figure out the right - you don't get it, because the left doesn't get it. Brooks's comments were spot on in some places and off in other places - he is a moderate who does not buy into austerity and is lukewarm about the Tea Party. He has the Democrats pegged pretty well though.

"The left has no money funding the occupy movement."

Lies and misinformation again, T-S ! George Soros is not the left ?- he has poured millions into the Occupy Movement and through his funding sources. I stand by that.

"No I consider "progressives" to be true to Democratic principals, just as I believe there are traditional Republicans. "

Politics are far different than they were 30 -40 years ago - you haven't figured that out yet. Progressives are now being weeded out of the GOP, like Dick Lugar. The reason is that they don't believe in smaller government. Progressives typically do and are showing themselves to be fiscally irresponsible. Back 30-40 years ago, progressives were not perceived to be a problem during way lower debts and deficits. However, today progressives are for taking America over the financial cliff, moving toward becoming a welfare state and a redistributionist economy. A plurality of Americans don't want this. The tea party came into being because of our financial crisis (although it really should have before Bush was out of office). Progressives (Repub or Dem) will be perceived as the fiscal enemy by those who want smaller and more fiscally responsible government.

This has been a long time coming. Not particularly happen about this situation, but politics has become a scam game and many of them need to be voted out in favor of more fiscally responsible people. Lobbyists and insider trading are other issues that affect them - they have too much effing power.

No, TS, I meant traditional Dan Evans-Mark Hatfield Republicans. The moderate Republicans who feel their party has abandoned them. Olympia Snow saw the writing on the wall. She agreed with the Dems a few too many times and her days in office were numbered anyway. There is no such thing as "taking on the Republcan Party"!! They don't allow rogues, regardless of what Palin says. Snowe's own party was going to defeat her and with unlimited money from the Kochs and other unnamed corporate donations that are in the hundreds of millions. Why spend her own money when they were determined to run her out of office and replace her with a Republican they could count on? I call that smart in this day and age. KS even mentioned how the GOP is purging the party.

KS, you have an interesting definition of "Progressive". It is not a word associated with Republicans at all. Just as the "old style" Republicans feel their party went way right, the old style Democrats that I know feel the same way and I include myself. Progressive was the term given to those whom the Republicans like to think of as "extreme." I take that as a compliment.
Like I said before, the ball of snakes that is left over tries to out maneuver each other and nothing gets done.

I liked Mark Hatfield in his day, but that was different day. The Democrats have moved so far left with the most radical leftist President in history, that the Republicans in response are moving farther to the right, but have elected Mitt Romney who is center right to represent them.

However, the GOP is energized to defeat Owebama no matter who runs. Unfortunate that a president has so alienated the opposing party and many independents and continues to be the most divisive president in history. He has brought on even a more polarized political climate than when Bush-43 was president. Owebama is still running against Bush because he is afraid to look in the mirror and see who is more at fault than anyone else for the state of the union. Romney may decide to select a Hispanic (Rubio) as VP as a reaction to the Exec order to open the borders for law-biding 16-30 year olds immigrants last week.

The Republicans have introduced 46 bills on abortion, 113 bills on religion, 73 bills on family relationships, 36 bills on marriage,72 bills on firearms,604 bills on taxation, and 467 bills on government investigations, and blocked the American Jobs act.

Re Olympia Snow, I only wish she would have caused a ruckus before she left. A few rebel votes would have enhanced her bio.

I don't think KS knows who he's mad at: lobbyists, leftists or legislators in general. He doesn't seem to be mad at bankers, hedge fund managers or deregulators. Enron, Worldcom, Murdoch, the Kochs and Shelly Adelson are his heroes.

On another note: I have some hope that our "hope-and-change President" might be back. Perhaps Draper's book outing the meeting of Republicans vowing to obstruct everything Obama tried to do has given Obama the moxie to quit extending the olive branch and start using the power of the executive order. He should have fired every GOP federal judge. He has lost a lot of support.

the question was for congressional observer - who has not stepped up to answer it. You had nothing to add to the discussion except ad hominem. BTW, WTF are you talking about ?

He's suffering from memory loss you know. Nobody I know on this blog has ever given Obama blind faith.

Posted by: T-S | June 20, 2012 at 04:19 PM

You are not everybody but you are a caricature and apparently are suffering from memory loss and multiple personality disorder. Numerous people here are in full support of Obama including yourself, Walt, Demo Now!, Coiler.

Hey schoolteacher, aka T-S. I am angry at whoever rips off me the taxpayer - they all seem to fit in. I see that George Soros is your hero - until you find out how much he has indirectly cost you perhaps. Would that even sway you ?

I hope everyone watches Rachel Maddow. She backtracks to the origin of the current contempt charge against Holder and it is really the result of a fringe rightwing blogger at Sipsey Street Irregulars. The substance of it is pathetic but it made its way through the meat grinder of Fox non-News all the way up to a few Republican politicians like Charles Grassley. Now it has become a second-amendment issue. Even though it started under Bush. The whole rationale has been distorted just to get Holder and Obama. And, KS, I gave my source. Either watch it or don't. I don't care.

Also, Walt, great timing on our "fringe" discussion. I wonder if Rachel reads this blog? :) She and Bob Herbert were talking about fringe elements and I think they sort of agreed the whole republican party was caught up in the "fringe." Can there really be a fringe when the whole party is part of it?

Then she had Chris Hayes talking about his book, Twilight of the Elites which demonstrates how our highly educated, oh-so-smart and privileged powerful elite are mismanaging the country. He starts with the last ten years and connects all the disasters to management. All these highly-paid CEOs need to be held accountable.

Oh, and Rachel presented a table from Mother Jones showing the disconnect between how most people think about income equality and what it really is. Scroll down to the bars that are titled out of balance. Pretty amazing. You might need glasses to find the bottom forty percent.

Walt - Just asking for accountability for what he said, just like I do for anyone else. Do you know why he hasn't bothered to post again ? (maybe because he can't coherently defend what he says) I guess that I care more about the truth than a number of folks here - so it goes. Don't let it bother you.

Hey Schoolteacher (T-S), school's out now, Maybe you are retired for more than the summer.

You didn't answer the question - why should the BW crew remove Chuck's post ? C'mon now get back on your meds...LMAO

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Now it's Top 40 hits from the '60's & '70's aimed at that diminishing crowd who still remembers them and can still hear.

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